Not Forgotten - Hellgate: London | The Original Looter Shooter by the Devs Behind Diablo

[@Indigo_Gaming]

London 2038 (fan multiplayer reboot) is now available (retail copy of Hellgate required): london2038.com/ A single-player version of Hellgate: Global was also re-released on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/939520/ Visit my GOG Partner page for curated list of over 100 games ► indigogaming.link/

[@_Ulisses_]

didn't know...great news...thanks for sharing.

[@Ergdoelloos]

@@_Ulisses_ It's also coming to steam on november the 15th (although it's going to be a single player only version)

[@Ralsar]

The steam version is Hellgate Global single player. Not the same as London 2038. I wasn't a fan of all the f2p mmo nonsense in Global or the changes to the game. But a lot of people liked it.

[@servantoflordjesus1150]

Hellgate London is coming to Steam on November 15, 2018.

[@DrakeWarriorIgonHarpooner]

Going to assume you meant Destiny 1 not Destiny 2

[@jasonsereno4718]

Thanks for posting this. I was the UI designer and artist for Hellgate: London, and it's great to see it again and hear that people remember it fondly and that some are even still enjoying it. Without going into details, I think your analysis on everything is spot-on. Also, a little known fact - Hellgate: Tokyo was in early pre-production at Flagship Studios very shortly after the game was released. I'm glad to hear that someone took the idea and ran with it.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Thanks for commenting Jason, that means a lot to me. And I didn't know that about HG: Tokyo, seems like there were very big plans that weren't fully realized. Thanks for sharing, and I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

[@SoapySoap93]

i played the shit out of your game dude, thanks for the hard work I'm gutted it didn't pan out but I'm really glad I got to play it and be along for the ride.

[@codycronauer1256]

Your channel reminds me of what games journalism was back in the day. A gaming channel that doesn't pander, or shill; with honest reviews, insight, and criticisms. Great stuff here at Indigo.

[@nathanbruce1992]

Cody Cronauer: damn, remember when G4 was on tv? Xplay was my jam

[@codycronauer1256]

Yup, like MTV when they played music and had HeadBangers Ball. Fuck I miss those old Nintendo Power mags and how excited I was seeing Mario Kart 64, Starfox, Bomberman, Metroid Etc. Want a nostalgia bomb , look up Old Game Mags on tumblr (I hate to plug that site outside of Razorfist)

[@Sakattack2023]

Rose tinted goggles bud. They were always shills. Journo’s are all midwits.

[@NER0BLAST]

I've been always waiting for this game to get recognized by others for its true worth, it's nice to see someone else praising the game, a lot of people are waiting for it to rise again or at least a reboot.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I hear you. There were definite problems both developmental and publisher-wise. Not enough polishing and QA, rushed release, buggy and a poor business model, but it had a lot of potential and things to love about it when you got past all that. Let's hope London 2038 works out more of the kinks, gets working multiplayer up and running and gets launched. That would be great.

[@NER0BLAST]

I did subscribe to the mod long before your video, I do thank you for spreaading the word, alot of us are hoping that they make a LAN patch to the game at least, they are working on it as we speak, hoping for the best.

[@Donielism]

i dont see anything worthy of attention here really.. make the gameplay clutch then fix everything else otherwise most people arent interested to play the game, its not surprizing that if a world feels janky and clunky you arent gonna want to spend your time in it.. if they made a snappy spin off of this i would be down to look in to it though^^ the concept looks cool but thats not good enough, if it was i would praise every mediocre warhammer game ive played

[@NER0BLAST]

With all due respect, the concept alone is worthy of attention, regardless of the mechanics, graphics and technicals of the game which were, as explained by the video's author, victims of poor production and ruining decisions by the developers, the subscription fee, for example, was literally the last nail to the coffin. In my opinion the idea and concept of the game is enough to make it unforgettable by people however minor, the existence of a loyal community which strives to keep the game alive is enough proof.

[@ParadiseDecay]

Reboot coming... see my other post!

[@josheh4]

I worked on this game! One of the first in my career.

[@josheh4]

I remember right before the release of the game, I was playing it and thought... this is going to fail. There was something about it...

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Nice! I've gotten a few nods from a UI designer I believe and David Brevik for this video. It's a shame it turned out the way it did. Seemed a bit too ambitious without the proper time to polish it all out.

[@josheh4]

From what I can remember, the lack of polish is what gave that impression, but it's been so long. There was a lot about it I liked, and it promised to be one of the first huge games I worked on, but eh. It died, it died quick. Watching your video reminded me of some of the aspects I liked though and looked forward to in the final product. I'm an environmental artist. That was in my first year in the industry, and eh, my biggest claim on it is I made the toilets! Among other unmemorable environmental assets.

[@ZacHawkins42]

Palatable Platypus Love this game, I thank you for your efforts!

[@folver91]

Palatable Platypus yeah dude, and those toilets were very good.

[@muhughu]

Holy shit!... Here I sit just minding my own business, when all of a sudden Hellgate pops into my mind. So I search youtube expecting to find some 9 year old videos to reminisce over and I find one that's 14 hours old... The internet never seizes to amaze me.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

+Muhughu - The internet is an amazing place, and it never forgets. :)

[@sketch2347]

simulation

[@imdunes]

ceases* im not a grammar nazi i swear

[@ChrisHansen.]

Where were you during the Grammerberg trials?

[@GuvernorDave]

That's not grammar that's literally not knowing your own language.

[@MassiveSwordAndCards]

I bought in as a "Founder" member, I believe for something like $200. Played it from beta to server shutdown, loving every minute. I still have the huge ass collector's edition box in my display case.

[@Wolfsheim23]

Ya they were really trying to scam people at first making a standard multiplayer game sound like an MMO and trying to charge monthly fees.

[@zukzulkhan]

hood news friend, you can now play it again online

[@_Gorrek_]

I remember playing this at launch with my buddy, i honestly had a blast playing it as the templar, think my buddy went cabal. Eventually he quit and i was stuck soloing it. I was just thinking about this game when i saw this video pop up, thank you for making me remember

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Sounds awesome. Glad you got a little trip down memory lane.

[@Aimismyname]

London 2038 is now in Open Alpha; you can play online, most things are working, and they're testing and improving features everyday!

[@sweepingtime]

I remember the advertising campaign for this game. They covered sides of buildings and bridges with posters. We still had LAN cafes back then and the game was poised to be another LAN cafe hit.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Dang, wish they had put that budget back into the game instead of blowing it on marketing. Underbudgeted and overhyped is a recipe for failure.

[@ericstorm8277]

I don't know when they messed up, but when they declared that they were going to work with EA, I had chills in my backbone =(

[@Indigo_Gaming]

+Eric Storm It seems that when you have not one but TWO publishers who don't have the best record of keeping the players' interests in mind, you're going to have a bad time...

[@ericstorm8277]

@Indigo: sadly, you are right. At that time, I was really shocked that Flagship had to ask for help to EA for developing the game. Who knows what would have happened if Kickstarter was there.

[@DarkTenka]

I remember that Lyra (The female Paladin Character in the intro) featured in Playboy Magazine. Theres still a pretty hot pic of her somewhere stripping her top revealing some nice boobs.

[@blaize00]

I actually really liked this game as a kid.

[@sickofitall89]

I sill do One of the best quotes - Remember the dead , but fight for the living I dont know if thats where it came originally but i remember it being from a cutscene in the game.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Yeah that's a great repeated line, was also the game's tagline if I remember correctly.

[@dra6o0n]

Maybe what they've should've done, is open up the game to the game development community as a open source game for all to work on, this will guarantee that the concept and ideas will become popular. Then they can create their own 'version' as a standalone game while there are interests in the concept and ideas, and benefit off of it. There are not a lot of Lovecraftian themed RPGs if you look at a lot of the recent releases, but it's mostly due to the horror element supposedly related to Halloween.

[@joethesheep4675]

"Remember the dead but fight for the living!" is the warcry of the templars in HG- London. And its awesome ^^

[@reverendrider]

yep go Half Life engine on that shit. how many games were made because you could just pull up worldcraft and make your own game?

[@asddd579]

I never thought some one would ever talk about this game again. The nostalgia is hitting me hard.

[@Irraptured]

Its coming back on the 15th!

[@goliathmb18]

Ah the memories, i enjoyed this game alot back then, despite its issues... It eas just awesome for its time, the enemies, guns and tge armours were so fucking cool. Ah the memories :(

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Thanks for watching! Took a few rewrites to get a fair balance of good and bad points. Hellgate wasn't perfect, but I think it was quite underrated in its initial release.

[@ericstorm8277]

Thank you for your efforts. The only thing missing is the term "Flagshipped" (www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flagshipped&defid=2757484) ^__^'''' I really wanted HG:L to be good. Such a nostalgia =(

[@MunchyShrimps]

Would have done reasonably well on early access or kickstarter. T3 just caved in to pressure of the loudest tin cans and pulled the plug causing everyone including the silent people to associate it as a negative experience. So it became very difficult for them to make amends afterwards no matter what they did.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

+TV Jhin You can still get the game on Amazon for $10 (at least in the US), not sure where else, eBay perhaps? If you can get your hands on a copy, here are the patches to get it up to date with stability and bug fixes: mega.nz/#F!pQsVUC6Q!PMEREm9fD_g39FKOMwOf_w

[@banaroklionrage9536]

no, thst'd wrong it's initial release was in no way underated it was trash, the beta was better since some last minute changes broke quite a lot of the game, you'd get stuck on any and everything if you jumped, enemies that jumped could fall through the floor but still chase and injure you. they fixed all of this relativly quickly but it really hit the first impression like a truck. Also the stats for marksmen where stupid, you'd have to go without armor more or less to use the late level guns because they used so many stats. i still liked the game but damn it had a lot of issues especially at launch.

[@TheLobstersoup]

Would you care about reviewing "Huxley"? I thought it was very original at the time and looked great, but always wondered what made it fail. Never played it, because at the time I had no PC to handle it.

[@XykuJoxa]

I wanted to play Hellgate London so bad as a kid. I was a hardcore d2lod player, and to mix Diablo and fps sounded like God's work. Alas, my PC couldn't handle it, so I never got it. This video really explained everything about something I craved so much as a child. Thanks!

[@sgaford]

Stumbled onto this video years later and was reading the comments. This 100%. I had a Pentium 4 Rig at the time, but only a 128mb AMD GPU as opposed to the 256mb that the game called for. When I finally got to the game the online community was dead AF. also sorry for Necro >.>

[@brendo7363]

Forgotten for good reason. Hellgate may have been mechanically similar to borderlands and diablo but was absolutely lacking in character, quality and atmosphere

[@IcoKirov]

diablo 3 may lack the character and atmosphere, but it has quality. in its core diablo 3 is a good hack and slash rpg, its just a bad diablo game. while hellgate londen had potential, but in the end most things were flat boring. the combat, enemies, areas were boring. it had great potential, i was in love with the potential of the game, but the game came flat for me.

[@sebastianteister]

No, this is not right. The tenor of the community as far as i remember was the lack of late-/endcontent and repetitiveness of level design. If you remember the zombie spawner, it was one of the most fun mobs not seen since the diablo 2 kobold wizard. At least I cannot emphasize the statement mobs were boring.

[@Goraka91]

A lot of MMOs have rather inspired ideas that by the time the finished product comes out are...less inspired.

[@eccentriceric88]

well, look at borderlands 1, it lacked story, character and atmosphere. It was like Demon's Souls, i.e. here's an engine and what it can do, so let's try it out. THEN when they implemented charactern story and atmosphere in BL2 and Dark Souls it took off like a bat outta hell! They were more or less working on an engine that showed potential. Honestly it's a mix of players wanting instant gratification, and companies wanting paid subscriptions for online. That's what killed it :/

[@Sassy_Witch]

Diablo 3 has no Quality. The only reason why it was accepted was because of the Blizzard fanboy

[@EmoEmu]

Congrats to Hellgate: London for going live on Steam today.

[@TwoWholeWorms]

Longest Early Access period ever. :p

[@lydierayn]

@@TwoWholeWorms Longest steam greenlight ever

[@BobMotster]

Being a life-long fan of the Diablo series, I found myself playing one of the first builds of Hellgate: London back in early 2008, killing demons and time in anticipation of the release of D3. While just a mere substitute at first, to keep my thirst for this type of RPGS slaked, I soon realized that I had a jewel in my hands in the face of H:L. Right away, I am going to agree with all the pros you pointed out. Hellgate was a revolutionary project for the time and, as is obvious from your footage, holds strong even today. As for the cons - I don't think bad developer/publisher decisions killed it. Its demise was the result of a shift in the paradigm, a trend to create software products at the beck and call of investors/sponsors, rather than let programmers and artists realize their ideas as well as listen to consumers when polishing the finished product. Long story short - greed destroyed free will and creativity in the gaming industry. Hellgate is just one of the many titles that suffered the consequences. It actually got out of it pretty much unscathed. Many other games never reached the shelves back then, and still more do not leave the drawing board today for the very same reason. A lot of disappointment is in store for us [gamers] as long as those holding the checks make the decisions and snap at the artists each time the latter veer off the most-profit-least-expense path.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

An interesting point for sure. You gotta admit having a subscription fee which locked future content and some features away definitely poisoned the well for some players, even if just from a PR standpoint. Even Penny Arcade mocked the subscription model of the game: i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/robertphi/20070511.jpg~original

[@BobMotster]

Yes indeed. Completely agree and lament that this is the sad reality Mr. Roper and Co. had to cope with back in 2008. At the time they were working with multiple publishers and marketing companies and answering the requirements of all of those is no small feat. One that requires swift funding at the very least. Yet another facet of what I wrote about the other day - Flagship followed a bad path but it was forced upon them by skewed gaming industry standards and extremely demanding partners. I strongly believe that they did not make those choices alone and out of their own free will. Just like kids in high school have to do certain things if they want to be "popular". Humanity at its worst for sure, but it still thrives regardless... I don't know if it's the huge leap in technology or some greater economical phenomenon of the early 2000s but what was enough to complete a game development project at the end of the 20th century, both in terms of funding and sheer manpower, suddenly became inadequate less than ten years later. Too many productive small development companies were closed during that period. The people behind some of them went on to work for the big players, the corporations who too suffered during the transition but survived just because they had the means to acquire the necessary capital to cover the wounds. And that gave birth to the greatest culprit of them all - debt. OK, so what's the big deal you'll ask. Well, I remember a time when a game title had a single line beneath it stating that the game was made by X Studios and that was the whole story. Nowadays, that line says the same but when you read the license agreement you'll see that X Studios is a wholy-owned subsidiary of Y Entertainment, which in turn is part of the Z Group. Debt leads to dependence, dependence leads to decisions being taken by people who know nothing of programming, drawing, mesh, hitboxes etc. People who care only about filling their own pockets with money.

[@Infinite_Jester]

If artists and programmers were given unlimited resources we would just have a host of games that never get finished. You need to strike a balance between what some people would deem the "artistic" and "economical" sides of the product. You can't have a level designer draw up a 5-year plan for the future of the company or how they should handle their marketing. At the same time, you can't have an accountant fix the multiplayer aspects of the game. That being said, certain companies do push very hard, especially in the game industry where the consumers allow them to get away with it a lot of the time. Equally, companies make mistakes a lot of the time and end up with flops like Hellgate: London. About the disappearance of small studios: During the last decade there has been a surge in independently developed games (and later in private funding directly by the end customer), so I would argue the analysis is only partly correct. A lot of small professional studios have indeed disappeared, but the vacuum has been taken up by others, and the market is not in a state of oligopoly.

[@stringstorm]

ITS COMING BACK WOOWOO

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Nice! Just heard about it myself as well.

[@jumpstyleftw]

Hopefully they will add MP

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Yeah the lack of even peer-to-peer multiplayer parties is disappointing, hopefully they patch that in.

[@RaGe2306]

Hab you send me a link? :)

[@d4rkjust1c3]

Here it is store.steampowered.com/app/939520/HELLGATE_London/

[@organik05]

I miss this game :( I am really sad it went away.

[@1114elevenfourteen]

It is not gone. It is free2play now. Also beatable without paying anything.

[@organik05]

Some people are remaking

[@DARK__KING]

+1114elevenfourteen was free to play now server is down no longer available

[@1114elevenfourteen]

DARK KING Oh no! Didn't know that. What a shame...

[@MauvaDeXVRO]

there's a chinese "pirate" server going on www.pkren.com/

[@bankaiiibankaaa4573]

This type of a game has so much potential. If it was done right I'm sure it would be a long lasting franchise by now. I hope someone take the idea and make new modern game with the same concept.

[@alfredoj9791]

Destiny 2 but u need a lot of money lol at least 200 bucks

[@azkaria9881]

I love the game personally and still play to this day !!

[@cabrammstein]

i play it too, it's such an awesome game.

[@zackburgess5819]

I played this game so much my Senior year of High School. I remember picking it up from Meijer, reading the booklet on the way home. My first experience of Hellwait Loading (game never loads, stupid transmutation circle would just spin forever) and the first time I fell through the floor right before getting to the door that leads to the next zone. I loved every minute of it, read all of the novels, and comics. Literally for a year HGL is all i lived and breathed. Then again once Hanbitsoft picked it up, and when the boys down at Hellgate Aus did the single player patches, glad to see they finally got the Multiplayer in Alpha. Remember The Dead, But Fight For The Living.

[@FreesDENKanal]

This game was actually so fcking good. The armosphere it created was just amazing, you rly felt like a fighter for the survival of humanity. I will never forget this experience

[@QuestionThings123]

I'm surprised that I never heard of this game until this video, from what you've shown in the video it would be right up my alley. I really like the procedurally generated dungeon idea. If they could come out with a remake that kept the procedural generation but with improvements to give more variety, improve the enemy AI, improve the weapon feedback like you mentioned, and get rid of the (imo) awful monthly subscription fee (I just don't do games that have monthly fees at all), then they would have a definite fan here. By the way, excellent video presentation, you hit all the right topics and put together some great scenes from the game to use as examples. Top notch game reviewing.

[@showmetheway2]

The ideas were huge but there were budget and time constraints. Monetization was the final nail. Then borderlands came in and took all the credit and of course the profit.

[@Silentgasp]

This game is being released on steam 2 days from now. With its updated graphics and Tokyo addon

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Indeed! Crossing my fingers it's a good re-release.

[@RaGe2306]

Thank you so much for that Info!

[@Chanceiscool44]

Dont get the steam version, its garbage. Just go to london2038.com and get the modded and always updated version that includes multiplayer

[@AZEEEEEEEEEM]

Let me begin by saying I really enjoy your channel, I only now discovered it when searching for reviews about Dex, and I really found your reviews to be on point and more thorough than most reviewers out there. I instantly became a member of your channel, without even a split second's doubt. Keep on bringing it, you're really aceing it! Now, what I REALLY aimed at commenting just now, is however how this video right here made me regret that I didn't buy Hellgate: London back when I first heard about it. And now that I want to, I can't find any service providing the game for digital purchase, only physical copies from Amazon or eBay for a ridiculous amount of money. I visited the website of the fanbase, aiming at restoring it's multiplayer to it's former glory and more through a third party mod, and it specifically tells you that you need a original copy and key to at all be able to use the mod, once it hits launch. Living in Norway puts me in quite a difficult situation, because not only do I have to pay way too much for it from either Amazon or eBay, like 40$, but also what that entails is a pricey toll fee that I would have to pay as well once the purchase is above a certain limit, which it exceeds, so ultimately it's not ideal for me to invest in something I'm not certain I'd be able to play nor would truly enjoy before experienced firsthand. I've been searching everywhere for a digital release, and Origin has clearly dropped it from it's store, and obtaining a cloned copy from someone sharing it online but without a valid key clearly isn't an option either, so that basically leaves me with pretty much - nothing. So please, anyone... Any bright ideas?

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I'm glad you like the content of my channel, and I hope you continue to enjoy it in the months coming forward. Hellgate is becoming hard to come by and its official publishers have given up distribution. I can't morally recommend pirating it, but I myself went and downloaded an ISO file over torrent and installed the game using a virtual drive as I've not had a DVD drive for years.

[@dylhas1]

Wow a modern day version of this game would be a massive hit. We get nothing this unique lately

[@showmetheway2]

It's much harder to try something truly different now because of how much each game costs to make. The best way is to make a smaller single player concept. If it takes off a bigger game can then get greenlit.

[@dylhas1]

@@showmetheway2 I think costs could easily be kept down if people weren’t so focused on photorealistic graphics. That’s usually the biggest cost and why games have gotten exponentially more expensive. I want style and gameplay. Evil West is an example of a much cheaper game that still looks incredible but like you said games like that are harder to greenlight

[@kalgonzo148]

Holy hell this hit me with nostalgia. I used to have and read all the novels for this game after the game died when I was younger. I found the books at an old used item shop. I loved them as a kid but I never played the game. To be honest I forgot what the name of the series was years ago when I wanted to find and read the novels again. Thanks, Indigo.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I'm glad people are still looking back at this game. Definitely flawed, but I think it's an overlooked stepping stone to the massively popular first person ARPG genre we enjoy today. Thanks for watching!

[@25angel20]

This game need bringed back as remastered and filling the gaps was missing in 1st place and no monthly subs

[@zalar0s]

I still remember last moments of this glorious game where everyone gathered in Stonehenge for it's last final moments until servers wend down. I was there. LV 60 something engineer. It was a nice sight. Everyone gathered in one place, friend and foe, to say it's last goodbyes.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Those moments are pretty cool. Similar things happened in the recent closing of the Asheron's Call servers.

[@everinghall8622]

@@Indigo_Gaming Asheron's Call..... R.I.P In peace

[@andromacdonald5216]

this takes me back oh god its been ages now

[@joshuaflowers1677]

I did not expect to hear Hellgate London again. When I first got into PC Gaming, I was so hyped for it. I remember going through the demo/beta they had and just sinking my teeth into it. Game is alright, never amazing. If there was one saving grace, the one thing that made me go back to it (And my favorite aspect of the loot genre) is that the late game armors looked really cool.

[@orkenuu]

Oh God I thought I never thought that Hellgate actually had a big fanbase. I've always thought it was 200 people that even knew about this. Thanks for the video man, you're making me hyped for the rebuild of it!

[@leecoffill8425]

This game is seriously fun. When I purchased my copy (and so did several of my friends) we didn't realize that the servers were less than one month from being shut down, but what a month that was! Think about all the fun that can be had playing Borderlands with friends - That and more is what Hellgate: London offered us. We were all sad to see it go, and playing alone just doesn't have that same exciting feel as multiplayer did.

[@nuneselso]

I really loved this game

[@Irraptured]

Its coming back on the 15th!

[@zatnikutel635]

I played this game since it was released (ofc on low graf), but allways in singleplayer. I loved it, even when nobody else appreciated it. Hellgate almost got forgotten, but not by me. this game is still in my desktop every year for a few days, because it have elements what other games not. Hellgate is the ancestor of action rpg shooter games like borderlands, destiny, warframe, etc as you said, i agree, and more, and hellgate still have some things to teach to the new games. I hope someone in the future will use hellgate london, to create a perfect game.

[@Hrzybs]

Hey, can you do a video about Sacrifice - a strategic game made 3 years before warcraft 3, which main designer was Eric Flannum - earlier he was working in blizzard entertainment. Scenario for this game was written by James Phinney - main designer and producer of starcraft. Game was made mostly by four people, it was first fully 3d moba-like game, but much more advanced. In this game you are controlling a wizard which can cast over 40 spells avablive in this game and summon over 50 creatures. Game was really dynamic, had breathtaking graphic and was a commercial failrue with less than 100 thousand copies sold. Now moba games are incredibly popular, very producent want to have one, but no one really remember the first one fully 3d dynamic online battle arena which was highly praised by revievers - 89 score on metacritic means something. (sorry for bad english if appears, I'm from Poland).

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Yeah I played Sacrifice back in the day, I mentioned it briefly actually in my last episode of Not Forgotten. It's on the list of games to cover, for sure.

[@ssj3theoutsider228]

Yeah, definitely, I didn't knew it was made from some Blizzard employees, no wonder why I have always seen similarities with it

[@kiddhkane]

The game was made by 4 people? You must be kidding me...

[@Grumpy_old_Boot]

I played it a fair bit with my friends back in the day, just around the time when they both had small children. And this game had depth, yet you could start it and be playing within moments, making it very "parent friendly", because it had such a quick setup time. I think it was one of the first games were you could teleport to your teammates, which made getting started on the game so quick. And you could teleport out just as quick, which meant that when one of the babies suddenly need attention, we could just teleport to town, and do our stuff, while the parent attended the baby I know, I know - I'm probably the only guy around here who cherishes it for it's parent friendly design. :D

[@Derakk12062]

I loved this game when it came out. Yeah, it had glaring problems, but I loved the atmosphere and the enemies. It wasn't some new alien world, or a fantasy landscape-- we were fighting in what was left our home, in settings familiar to us. We were fighting the types of enemies that strike us in our nightmares; not over-sized rats or mushrooms with faces. I loved gathering up bits and pieces to upgrade my gun, and laying down support fire to aid my friend's templar in battle. The first person perspective and great soundtrack made the setting immersive, scary even. The game was an unpolished gem, and perhaps if it had come out sooner-- or much later-- it could've been more successful. I hope the IP doesn't go away, or at the very least will see a spiritual successor, because I want to once again walk through the surreal but familiar post-apocalyptic landscapes of our world, and wield my gun against the demonic oppressors. Thanks Indigo Gaming for the walk down memory lane.

[@howardburns3819]

I got this game on release and I dearly miss it. I never payed to play online when that became unavailable because my mother wouldn't pay for that and WoW at the same time and ultimately I'm glad she didn't spend her money on a game that failed but I remember it to this day as one of the most fun games I have ever played.

[@janneaalto3956]

I bought the damn game a week before the servers shut down. Played it through multiple times with the help of a crack. Was excited about Hellgate Global. Now I put all my hope in London 2038 www.moddb.com/mods/revival-sp-modification. Remember the dead...

[@TheSteamDeckUser]

but fight for the living!

[@Azure_Wulf]

Brings back memory's. I've always been a pc gamer but made my first "real" gaming rig specifically for this game. I really wish this series would get some love. Thanks for the video, it hit me right in the nostalgia.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

No problem, glad you enjoyed.

[@TheSteamDeckUser]

I was going to start doing this as well with old games I have that were really great. I bought this when it came out, on top of that it was the collectors edition. I was disappointed when they dropped the game. Great review and valid points. +subbed :)

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Go for it, we need more quality YT creators talking about games and what made them great.

[@TommyDaGreatest]

After watching your Netstorm video it strikes me that you, sir, have an excellent taste in games. This game too is one of my old favourites. Used to play it on XP and Vista. But when Win 7 was released on my new computer, the game refused to start. Just lying on my hard drive for years. As a memory. Fast forward about 10 years and that very computer crashed a few days ago. I bought a new one and while salvaging the remaims from the hard drive to my new Win 11 computer, I stumbled upon this game. Just doing a Ctrl C + Ctrl V from the folder to my new computer I expected the game to not work at all, due to the missing installation process. But lo and behold when the game started up flawlessly for the first time in a decade. Needless to say, that crashing computer turned out to be bliss in disguise.

[@NSOnos]

Even through the flaws I fell in love with the setting and art, spending so much time playing this game when it came out. There are few games I can say I have played so much time on. Even though many of my friends cannot play the game now, I personally try to run Tabletop RPGs based in the Hellgate universe if I can find interested players. This way I can hopefully give others a glimpse into the setting of this game when they otherwise would have never had the chance to experience it. As a side note, if you still have the original cds you can still install and play offline. I've done it a handful of times in the past few years :p

[@BPFDesigns]

My wife and I both preordered this game to play together. When the game arrived, we installed and booted it up right away, only to find that the first leveled was bugged so badly it was unplayable. On my game, the portal to hell was nowhere to be found so you couldn't complete a key quest to keep going. On hers, it was something different. Shortly thereafter the servers shut down. I think I still have the two original Hellgate: London game boxes downstairs in my office somewhere.

[@1sniper1wolf1]

Great video. I always wondered what happened to this game.

[@epoc162]

I have not played this game in YEARS.... I am downloading it as we speak so I can play it again. I played this all the time while in Iraq on my laptop between missions. The game had its shortcomings for sure, but it really was a fun game to play.

[@crozraven]

This franchise deserved a second chance & I think a similar combat system like Warframe (a mix of melee & shooter) would be a better fit imo. I mainly liked the Hellgate because of its aesthetics, premises, & lore. I mean who doesn't love Gothic Diablo + Futuristic Apocalypse?? The game itself also kinda remind me a bit of Shadowrun tbh.

[@Tairn79]

I learned about this game when i randomly picked up a book from the bookstore that was a Hellgate London book. When i went to find the game to play i was sad to learn that i couldnt and really wish this game wasnt dead. it sounded so good to me.

[@Polygonien]

Can't wait for this community update. I started playing this many years ago but for some reason stopped after a couple of hours. Thanks for reminding me of it and keep up the good work :)

[@Indigo_Gaming]

+Polygonien You're welcome! Thanks for watching, glad you liked it.

[@LordLOC]

This game, along with Auto Assault - I miss them so much. I really wish that HGL Korean (or maybe just SEA) server was still going. I'd play this in a second still to this day. Just had a great time with the game.

[@Polaventris]

Such a fantastic game it really was. I was lucky to be part of the QA team and got to play all the expansions too, which would have added so much to the game.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

That's awesome. I heard they did release a couple of the expansions but it was too late to save the dying community. I believe the fan reboot of the game's servers will include what was released though (Stonehenge, etc.)

[@Ctuchik]

From what i heard yes, but there will also be things from the time when bandai namco ran it as a free to play after flagship went bust. No that doesn't mean loot boxes or microtransaction store.

[@Irraptured]

Its coming back on the 15th!

[@RaGe2306]

@@Irraptured have you a Link for me? I really want to play this!

[@Irraptured]

@@RaGe2306 store.steampowered.com/app/939520/HELLGATE_London/ Two days left till its out!

[@sandwichical]

I had forgotten about Hellgate! I was super interested in it when it launched, but never got my hands on a copy. I read at least the first book, which I remember really liking. I don't know why I never played it, it may have been the specs. I do remember wanting Assassin's Creed around the same time, but brand new laptop didn't meet the minimum requirements and it was another four years before I got around to it.

[@Athamos]

i really used to like this game, idk why didnt work...

[@Napoleon637]

I just saw hellgate london on steam, unlocking on 15th November...looks like it won't be forgotten at all. I remember seeing this game in a magazine, so interesting but I never had the chance to play it. I'm looking forward to it.

[@paganarh]

I was with this game from launch to its (first) demise, absolutely loved it. Did not know about the last revival, thank you

[@CAHack3r]

Don't know how this ended up on my recommended list, but glad it did. I still remember playing Hellgate Global, it was a truly fun game to play. Sad that it seems as though there never will be a Hellgate 2 :/

[@DrPluton]

I was heavily excited for this game right until the moment they announced that it would be a subscription game. At the time, I couldn't do subscriptions, and I gave the game a pass entirely. I actually did subscribe to World of Warcraft when it came out, but I feel like I missed out in some ways.

[@joethesheep4675]

I would suggest u read the books instead. As for the game u didnt miss anything. It had incredible potential but, sadly ended as an atrocity (Indigo gaming is depicting it a lot more possitive than it deserves... once again: sadly)

[@joethesheep4675]

***** i personally was out before the subsciption and i really wanted to love the game. I dont think that many stayed longer than i did but maybe it had many who got it months after the release (i had it at day 1)

[@oneZOCOM]

There is Hellgate Revival projekt, now in 3.0 unoficial version (oficial version is 1.5 on moddb) and the MP servers are now in closed beta-tests + there is huge community of people whose still play and love this game so the future of this game is not absolutly dead. The game is now in phase of resurrection. Lets praise for the new and better new start of the Hellgate London 2038 Revival ;)

[@Indigo_Gaming]

I definitely recommend the Revival mod if you're going single player, but the game is meant to be played with others, so if you get a chance, definitely check out London 2038. It's the vanilla patched game, but with online servers again. london2038.com/

[@BakaDeru]

I actually liked HGL, too bad it died so quickly.

[@manhart87]

Great video. I never fully understood what was happening, but you really cleared it out! I played this from the start until they closed the servers. It was a blast, and I loved farming bosses with my friends. Playing through it in singleplayer now for the first time since. Not the same playing alone, but still pretty cool and nostalgic :)

[@LinkedToReality]

I really miss the missadventures of Techsmith 314 D:

[@Indigo_Gaming]

+Link To Reality His Techsmithy will go down in smithstory...

[@axllaw427]

Including Lucious Aldin too? God, I love those duos

[@RuneGM]

I remember voting for the steam greenlight, I was really excited to play it but eventually I forgot about it after not hearing anything for quite some time. I hope the fan release works out because I still want to play it

[@butthurt2824]

I like hellgate and not ashamed to say so.

[@crunkplaya6929]

I played this game back in 2008, on a really weak PC rig with an Nvidia GTS 230. Yes, you heard that right, a GTS 230. I was utterly impressed with the graphics back then despite my video card not being able to output Pixel Shader 5.0. Hellgate London being a demanding game during it's introduction is a great understatement. I feel like much more could've been expounded upon this, how much gaming PCs cost back then compared to today, the software and hardware requirements to run it smoothly. Great video, regardless. Thanks for letting me know about it's Re-Re-vival. It's been almost a year now since you've made this video, I wonder how it's going....

[@TheGobberShop]

This needs a rerelease or console release like titan quest

[@TrashPanda5150]

I was big into this game and forums!. Was in the beta all the way to the last seconds before the servers shut down. Still gaming with the guild I joined up with back then. One tracker had me at, I think, around 1700 hours of gameplay almost exclusively in HC mode. Miss it deeply.

[@plasmastorm656]

£10 payment for the online upgrade pack, all we got were potatoes. Useless potatoes that took up inventory. Never forget. *off to dig out my cd and play some*

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Lol. Have fun, buddy.

[@n3rdy11]

OMG you are so right, I forgot all about the stupid potatoes.. at that point it felt like FSS was literally trying to troll its customers.

[@plasmastorm656]

Yeah, think it was the guy fawkes thign they did. Baked potatoes from the bonfire -.-

[@roguequill]

Thank you for the wonderful video - I think you really hit the nail on the head with the reason for the demise of the Hellgate. I really hope they follow up with a proper (maybe spiritual?) sequel in this age of Kickstarters and crowd funding!

[@FelipeWalker2]

AWESOME video. AWESOME channel.

[@SaschaEderer]

Wow, I remember this game very well, although I hadn't played it, I just recently thought about it as well, what a coincidence. But wouldn't have imagined that it looked so... _old_, I guess I'm the one who got older

[@Menhtrol]

i miss this game

[@adamus9277]

you can still play on private server london2038.com/

[@TheKevphil]

I'd like to see a continuation of BLUR STUDIO's promo scene. It would make a GREAT animated movie.

[@Gat720Dua]

Hellgate: London was my first MMO and my first time playing with actual people. That game taught me a few things.

[@DonCarmolo]

I played it as a singeplayer experience using an engineer. It was a lot of fun, but it is true that the game doesn't do much to lure you in. I'm glad to hear that this game is still going with a dedicated fan base.

[@AvatarOfDiablo]

I was actually really disappointed by this game. I was super hyped for its release, and I bought all three companion books, which I do still enjoy (never read the comics though). I'm not really a fan of shooters one way or the other, but even dismissing that I just thought the game wasn't very well put together. For one thing, I could only play it on my dad's computer, which was the only computer in our house that had internet, and even then, there was a lot of performance lag and every loading screen took over a minute. I understand that this is my fault, not the fault of the developers, but it certainly contributed to why I didn't like the game. More than that, though, I didn't find that any of the classes were particularly fun to play, especially in the beginning. I never beat the game, but I played 4 different characters: a Summoner (my first), then an Evoker, then a Blademaster, and finally an Engineer. I agree with Indigo Gaming that the starting out skillsets of each class were fairly boring, but if skills ever got really a lot better or more interesting, I never got to that point. I usually made it to about level 20-22 before I got bored and stopped playing. However, probably my biggest problem with the game was its story. As I mentioned before, I had eagerly followed its story pre-launch, and I bought and enjoyed all three books. I was hoping to see iconic characters from the books appear in the game, but even if this didn't happen (which indeed it didn't) I would still have been satisfied if they'd at least kept the same style and feel of the books. However, I feel that the story really just felt bland, and didn't feel like it was going anywhere. I was defeating demons and unleashing spirits that gave me cryptic advice, but nothing I did ever really seemed to matter. I felt like I was chasing a narrative that kept tantalizing me with cryptic lore, but adamantly refused to give me a real reason for what I was doing. I feel like this was a big mistake, since Diablo II's story did a great job of keeping me invested. While I don't think D2's story was particularly great, it did do a great job at making each part of the game feel like it was pushing me onwards. You spend the entire game chasing the Dark Wanderer, and the game makes sure that you see not only how close you are getting to him (giving you a sense of accomplishment), but also how bad things have gotten as his passing releases demons and monsters (giving you a desire to stop him). With Hellgate London, however, I never got the sense that anything I did made a difference, and even though I was progressing in the game, I never really got a sense of how or why. Because of this, I had no feeling of connection to the story, or drive to learn more, so it was easy for me to fall off. I would say that what the game really needed to keep me interested was a much more compelling story than what it got. Even D3, which had a pretty bad story overall, still kept me interested simply because I had the sense that things were happening and that the game was building up to something, even if it wasn't doing so particularly well. Add to that the negatives in this video, and also the feeling that later skills were bugged and/or useless. For example, on my Evoker, I made it up to level 30 and unlocked a skill called Hellfire, which promised in the description to call up a blast of Hellfire to annihilate my enemies. However, when I actually used it, it had a cool animation but it never seemed to do decent damage, and when I checked the wiki for why, I found out that the skill was bugged and was not worth putting points into. I had something like this happen on every character I made in HGL, albeit not to as bad as that one particular experience. For those examples, it was that the Blademaster didn't get defenses fast enough, even using a shield, and died quickly to ranged enemies, and that the minions for the Summoner and Engineer were quickly killed by powerful enemies/bosses, leading to those classes being reduced to running backwards and shooting which summoning more guys that would only last a second or two. Lastly, something that Indigo Gaming didn't cover, but which I always hated, were the weird mission changes. A few of the game's missions had weird gameplay changes, such as suddenly being a Warcraft 3-style RTS with unresponsive controls, or an earlier level that i remember being something like an on-rails shooter (again, not done very well). I feel like changing up the style of the base game isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but I always felt that the gameplay-changed sections in HGL felt jarring, came out of nowhere, had no loot drops, and overall felt less balanced than the rest of the game. Overall, I'd say that HGL wasn't a particularly bad game overall, but considering how well they hyped it up before launch, all of the smaller problems and disappointments piled together to create an impossibly heavy burden that always killed my interest in the game by the 2/3 mark. I was most disappointed with the story, since I really loved the books. I hope (though I don't expect) that someone will get the rights to the books and make more. Even though the game didn't do a good job of expanding on the story and lore, the books were great, and I think that if the books continued past the first three they could have told a great story.

[@ayrshark9314]

I only played it after it closed down but this was my experience as well. A few other things to note would be needed to constantly click next because they didn't bother to place more than one sentence per text screen. There were also the awkward attempts at humor that were just....bad. When I found out that pretty much all the dialogue was that I lost interest even faster. Really clashed with the world the cinematic opening showed.

[@porcupineracer2]

I remember playing this game some time in 2009. What a great game. Never played a MMORPG before experiencing it, so those old things other people disliked I was experiencing for the first time. My only complaint was how repetitive the levels could get. I think I played an Evoker the most, because you could create an overpowered build for it where you could just walk through an entire level while holding down a button and killing everything. Memory is a bit foggy, but I remember that was fun.

[@DawnApon]

Freaking loved hellgate

[@dartdukii]

This game was bought out and turned into a multiplayer game a few years ago, i found out by chance. They added a ton of new quests and maps. The servers were supposed to close down december 31st 2015. I stopped playing a month before that due to the announcement.

[@TheSatanicGamerFromHell]

i like how one of the sites said YOU MUST HAVE AN original RETAIL COPY OF THE GAME. when i pirated my copy and i am able to play single player i even managed to install the latest patch on SAID pirated copy, everything is possible. oh yeah and i have no problem with being able to only play single-play in fact this is a bonus for me

[@iamalpharius9483]

I was introduced to Hellgate: London by a Linux writer who I knew. It was a great monent when I realized I could play this game and help introduce others to it. Great game

[@mr420quickscops2]

Great video man, really put together well. You covered what i feel was what we needed and wanted to hear, but didn't drown out the game. Earned yourself a subscriber for that haha Keep on with great videos like this one, I hope you try to stick to whats happening with the new Hellgate and keep us updated

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Thank you, hope you like my other content. Not sure if I'll do another scripted video on Hellgate's progress, but I may talk about and stream London 2038 soon, we'll see.

[@Venjjeance]

I remember this game coming out. I was so excited when I found out about Flagship Studios and the Blizz North collective starting up their own production. I had pre-ordered the collectors edition (which I still have to this day). I remember going up to GameStop to pick it up and the manager (i sort of knew) was saying he was a bit surprised when that 1 copy of the collector's showed up. Sounded like there wasn't a big advertisement done for the game in general. I don't believe I was actively playing when the paywall came in but remember going back and finding that Flagship was shutting down along with the game servers. Though, we did get Runic Games and the Torchlight series out of it. So unfortunate for this wonderful game but not a total loss. I didn't know about the attempted revivals, I'm really excited to check out the latest working and hope it comes to.

[@Nr2reaper]

I played the game since the beta and i've always had a love for it. At launch i played it despite the massive problems at the time, with at least 200+hours. I've also played every re-release since, at least once to the end with 1 or more characters. But yeah, everything mentioned is true, the very early game is stale and unresponsive until a few levels in (which is hit within 30minutes). Its enough to scare some people away. About 3-4 hours in is where the repetetive area fatigue sets in, where even more people drops off. The few who remain will very likely play all the way to the end and love it, probably on multiple characters to try different builds. Unfortinately those arent enough to keep the end-game populated enough to keep most players, so at this point even more players drop off into other games... while the few of us who remain just sits by and hope for a sequel that is more open areas and active players. Its a shame, it has so extreme amount of potential, its the borderlands that i always wanted.

[@AikawaKazu]

For someone who played it during the SEA region back then, the reason why it died or disappointed many people over here was because there was some patching issues that resulted in the publisher over here "iahgames" to announce that the multiplayer online progress by players be reset. Basically they said that for the "SEA" servers to patch and update to the same version as the global server version, a reset was needed due to a "bug". There were many players who "no-life" the game when it was released so this announcement caused many to simply quit. The saddest part was in the end a reset was not needed for the patch but many have already given up on the game because of this.

[@xenophen3871]

I was a founder, and still miss this game

[@Zeithri]

Don't forget that you *can* play Hellgate London in Singleplayer mode. I have the disc somewhere but, no idea where. I've tried to get other people to try it every now and then but it never really stuck with them. Personally, I really enjoyed it. I played a Marksman. Loved the design of the game. Fantastic.

[@mprGG]

I still have the CD package here from it. I was so sad when they had to shut down the servers back then, I really loved it.

[@xechufriend]

This was the second mmorpg I played. I did for half a year when I was 13. I'm 25 now and I've been always going back to Hellgate, reinstaling to get a shot of nostalgia. I was tired of the «click on enemy, play piano, press tab, play piano» that was WOW and this game combat flowed like anything I played before. Now I'm playing online on 2038 server and it's better than what it was. Anyone should give it a try.

[@thulean.uruk-hai]

I was one of the original players of Hell gate, buddy and I had both purchased the $150 lifetime subscription package. The game seemed awesome at first but wore thin so quickly, and the first add-on package didn't help as it was obviously geared for full groups, the two of us couldn't get far at all and going solo was suicidal. Was hopeful when it reemerged as a free-to-play but that vanished soon as I realized I would have to pay to progress to areas I had already completed during the original release and so much of the gameplay was still tedious. It's good to hear they are trying again, hopefully the game fares better this time.

[@CrossKamui]

Very nice recap of the "Hellgate history"! :) I love this game, it's a shame that it is not on steam - the game is playable (played the single player for quite some hours in december 2016). I also played the Global MP edition, and one version that was before it. All hope is faded? Nay, I wouldn't say that. Sincerely and secretly I still hope that one day someone will remake this game. Or make one that would become, what this one was intended to be. :) Thank you for the video!

[@o0SKRen0o]

I loved this game. I even wrote up a class guide for a Marksman Striker. I really wish I could find it in the wayback machine.

[@draco_2727]

I was almost half way on the campaign when my hard drive got screwed up, it was years ago and I still plan to come back and finish it! Great game and scary at times!

[@TheBrokensaintvxvx]

I remember finding Hellgate: London on Steam when it went free to play and adoring it, but wishing that there was more. Then, it died, and I lost a game that while rough in play, featured an ascetic and game play system that I longed for.

[@PTDeimos]

Holy shit, now there's a name I didn't expect to see ever again. I still remember how big the hype was for this game, at least in a Diablo 2 fan forum I used to participate. Shame to see all that potential go down the drain, even though the devs didn't make the best of choices, like the MMO subscription system which pretty much tore the community apart. You know, it would only be fair if you took a look at the other game they developed, or rather, a branch of them. That was another rollercoaster of happiness and frustration.

[@JClemente1980]

This was actually one of first games I prebought. I loved the style and the "sword fighting". Although the 2 swords mode was very hard to use against flying enemy... of which there are many. But never played it online, at that time, playing online against other players was not something very talked about, and to pay a subscription to do so was not something I wanted to do. But in the single player mode was great! I did loved it! And yes, sometimes was boring because you did knew where to go on a map, but as it was changed, you had to search for the things once again... however, if you to play it to enjoy the atmosphere, you will enjoy the game. I've ended it with the 6 kind of players at the time, and the engineer was simply funny! the perfect characters for the "nerds" who are clumsy in shooters! with that kind of character, you are king in here!

[@goddessesstartrekonlinefle3061]

Hellgate was a fantastic game! It was so good I bought founders in both EU and US servers. Though I feel the development house who owns the IP abused the player base, the founders purchase was equivelent over just over a years paid subsccription, so they closed down the game meaning anyone paying founders paid more than subscribers. It was gutting, and a kick whilst players where down to continue it for Korean players whilst cutting EU and US players adrift. So I would never pay for Hellgate again because the whomever owns the IP is about abusing their playerbase, not about making a lasting game (sadly). One thing incredible about the game was the special areas where the control scheme was changed from FPS to a Command and Conquer stylee. When I first entered the area it blew my mind, it was an entire different game inside the FPS game. The developers have alot to be proud of here. That said, OMG I loved the game, I was lucky enough to get a weapon spawn that was later disabled to spawn for being overpowered. As I never played any player vs player content, they left mine alone and it survived until they shutdown the servers. Also, the Halloween event was legendary, they gave out a burning skull helmet that is till this day my favourite. I wish I had the ability to capture gameplay back then. My main game character, Serial, I recreated in StarTrek online and I've not looked back since (been playing there over 12 years now.

[@kabioussiarani1359]

I played Hellgate when it first came out and my God I LOVED this game! I first heard about it from a friend of mine and it came about at a time when I was replaying the Diablo games, 1&2 that is. I was indeed saddened when a year or two after first playing it, to search for it online only to find out that it's no longer available for play. Although, if they are back at I again, I am game!!

[@SacrificialGods]

There was a stand alone version of the game released via Games for Windows Live. If you can find a copy of it you can still get the updates on the numerous group pages out there.